{"id":435075,"date":"2026-02-19T23:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/435075\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T23:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:44:07","slug":"itoje-warns-against-corrosive-social-media-after-racist-abuse-of-edogbo-six-nations-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/435075\/","title":{"rendered":"Itoje warns against \u2018corrosive\u2019 social media after racist abuse of Edogbo | Six Nations 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The England captain, Maro Itoje, has warned of the corrosive effect of social media on professional athletes and wider society before the crucial Six Nations<\/a> encounter with Ireland on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Itoje will win his 100th England cap at Twickenham in what has become a must-win game for the hosts after last weekend\u2019s deflating defeat by Scotland<\/a> at Murrayfield. The buildup has been marred by racist abuse on social media of the Ireland second row Edwin Edogbo, after the 23-year-old made his debut from the replacements\u2019 bench in their win against Italy<\/a> in round two.<\/p>\n

Itoje said the abuse of Edogbo was \u201cincredibly sad\u201d and spelled out the danger of the online world, explaining why he believes the wider damage it is causing will become clear. \u201cSocial media has been a force for good in many ways but it\u2019s also been a force for negativity in a lot of other ways,\u201d Itoje said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important for athletes, as well as ordinary people, not to live their life based on what social media says about them. Because it would be a horrible way to live your life. I would advise all top-level athletes not to spend too much time on social media because it\u2019s really corrosive.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hypothesis is we\u2019re going to see in the coming years a huge amount of damage that has been done to us as humans, and as a society, as a result of social media in terms of brains and brain development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itoje also pointed to the modern media landscape being one of extremes, explaining that he tries to maintain a sense of perspective whether he is praised or criticised. \u201cSocial media is very dangerous because even when it is positive it can be corrosive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I have a huge amount of respect for everyone in this room, [in mainstream media] what tends to happen is the positive news is extremely positive, and the negative extremely negative. In reality, you\u2019re always somewhere in the middle.<\/p>\n

Edwin Edogbo made his debut for Ireland in the win over Italy but suffered racist abuse on social media afterwards. Photograph: INPHO\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just go with what the headlines say, or what they say on social media, it\u2019s a horrible way to live your life because you become a slave to what other people say about you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itoje said the abuse of Edogbo demonstrates the battle against racism must continue but that he also believes there is some progress being made. \u201cThe stuff around Edwin is incredibly sad,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something no one should have to go through and it\u2019s a reminder there is still work to do. While the stuff we\u2019re seeing \u2013 whether it\u2019s Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior<\/a> or Edwin Edogbo \u2013 is terribly sad and we as a community need to keep on stamping this type of thing out.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I do also believe that we are moving in somewhat the right direction. But moving in the right direction is not a given. It takes work. I think we all need to constantly remind ourselves of the work that we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ireland head coach, Andy Farrell<\/a>, has dropped the fly-half Sam Prendergast from his matchday squad to face England after their narrow victory against Italy in Dublin. Jack Crowley of Munster starts at No 10 with Leinster\u2019s Ciar\u00e1n Frawley providing cover on the bench after Farrell made five changes to his starting team. Jamison Gibson-Park returns to start at scrum-half, replacing Craig Casey, with Tadhg Furlong, Tadhg Beirne and Josh van der Flier restored to the pack.<\/p>\n

\u201cJack Crowley starts because of what we\u2019ve seen and how he\u2019s come through and performed,\u201d Farrell said, before backing Prendergast to recover from his omission. \u201cSam\u2019s a fantastic international player, he\u2019s on a journey that\u2019s obviously learning, like all of us. That will never stop. It\u2019s the same for Ciar\u00e1n Frawley. We\u2019ve talked all along about the lads competing against one another, and the balance is right for this team this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The England captain, Maro Itoje, has warned of the corrosive effect of social media on professional athletes and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-435075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}